Systems and methods for displaying supplemental content for an electronic book

ABSTRACT

Supplemental content related to an electronic book may be obtained by creating a search query using a keyword in selected text of the electronic book. The search query may also include details about the electronic book obtained from a manifest file for the electronic book, including the location of the selected text.

BACKGROUND

There are many types of devices that are capable of displayingelectronic book data for a reader. Some of those devices are alsocapable of displaying other types of media data. In some electronic bookdevices, a reader may be able to interact with the book content inlimited ways. For example, a reader may be able to search a dictionaryfor a definition of a term in the book. In another example, a reader cansearch for terms in a text, and highlight and comment on text. Suchinteractions are limited to the content of the text in the electronicbook. There is no mechanism for linking electronic book text with otherrelated content. However, a reader may wish to find additional contentrelated to the text to enhance the reader's reading experience. If auser wishes to find other content related to the electronic book, theuser would need to perform a search for the content and the searchresults may be voluminous or irrelevant because it can be difficult tofind content that is interesting to the user or that is relevant to theelectronic book, in particular, a portion of the book that the reader isreading.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, systems and methods are described for providingsupplemental content to accompany an electronic book (“ebook”). An ebookuser may read a book on an electronic device. There are many ways toview ebooks. For example, a dedicated ebook reader, such as a Kindle,Nook, Fire tablet can be used to read an ebook. There is also ebooksoftware, such as iBooks, Kindle, OverDrive, CloudLibrary, etc., thatcan be used on a tablet or portable device to read ebooks. When a readeris reading an ebook, the reader may wish to obtain content that isrelated to the ebook. For example, a reader may wish to obtain notesrelated to the book, character information, or other details. Somereaders may wish to view other related content, such as a movieadaptation, book reviews from friends, video clips about the text, orother content. Such related content may be considered supplementalcontent for the ebook. The supplemental content may be viewed on thesame device the reader is using, or shared to another device. Forexample, a reader on a tablet may be sitting in their living room andmay wish to activate a related movie or television show on a televisionscreen. In another example, a reader on a tablet may read an ebook andwish to share the experience with a family member or friend and cansearch for media related to the ebook to display on another device forthe other person. To find such supplemental content, the user mayinteract with the text of the ebook to obtain the supplemental content.In some scenarios, interaction with the text of the ebook may create asearch query using a media guidance application to search forsupplemental content. In some examples, selectable options forsupplemental content may be included in the text of the ebook display,or in the display page for the ebook. In another example, thesupplemental content may also be identified by a media guidanceapplication using information in an ebook file. These examples may becombined in an ebook text display screen to present different ways ofaccessing content that is related to the ebook in the same screen.

In an example, a user may select a portion of the text in an ebook thatis displayed on a user device. The selection of the portion of the textmay be input using a touchscreen on the display device, or by usinganother user input technique, such as using a mouse, ball, roller, etc.The selected portion may be received by the user device on which theebook is displayed, or alternatively, be received by a user device thatis remote to the ebook tablet. Such input may be received by the userdevice by a communication from the ebook tablet, such as by a homenetwork (e.g., LAN), or via a data or cellular connection, or via theInternet. The selected portion of the text may be identified orhighlighted for the user by generating an overlay class for the portionof the text so that it is visible to the user or reader.

The user device may parse the received portion of the text to determinea keyword in the portion of text. The keyword may be one or more actualterms that are included in the portion of text. Generally speaking, anyterm in the selected text may be a keyword. Some terms may be determinedto have a greater relevance as a keyword in a search. Such terms may be,for example, nouns over adjectives and verbs. Such terms may also beidentified by comparing the terms in the selected text to a summary,notes, or metadata about the book and which may be in the ebook manifestfile. For example, some books may have tag lines that are associatedwith a reference source and which may also have some associated mediaitems. In some scenarios, the selected text may be identified in thedisplay in a distinctive manner so that the reader can tell that thereis supplemental content associated with the text. When such text isselected, a media guidance application running on the ebook device mayidentify the related supplemental content to be delivered to the device.In some examples, the media guidance application can retrieve theassociations between the text in the ebook and the supplemental contentby checking the metadata or manifest file for the ebook. In otherexamples, the media guidance application may retrieve the supplementalcontent information from a media database where ebook and supplementalcontent associations may be stored. In another example, the mediaguidance application may check both sources and choose the best or mostrelevant supplement content item for display to the reader based, forexample, on the reader's user profile, a device history, media accessavailability, popularity of the supplemental content, the strength ofthe relevance of the supplemental content, or other basis.

Many ebook files are stored in an EPUB file format which is a technicalstandard file format for digital publications. Other file formats arealso used for ebooks, for example PDF. In general, the EPUB file formatincludes details about the ebook which may be in a manifest file for theebook. The manifest file for the book may be retrieved at the userdevice by the media guidance application and may indicate, among otherinformation, a title of the ebook, and a chapter of the ebook from whichthe portion of text was selected. An automatic selection may beperformed by the media guidance application of the title obtained fromthe manifest file and the title may be made a first criterion. Thechapter of the ebook may be obtained from the manifest file andautomatically selected as a second criterion. In some scenarios, themedia guidance application may search a database of stored ebook andrelated content links, and then filter the relevant results using themanifest details for the ebook.

A query for supplemental content related to the ebook portion may begenerated using these criteria (i.e., the first criterion—title, and thesecond criterion—chapter) and the keyword that was obtained from theselected portion of the text. The query may be transmitted from the userdevice to a remote database, such as a media database, to search for asupplemental content item matching the query (i.e., the keyword, thefirst criterion, and the second criterion). A matching supplementalcontent item may then be transmitted to the media guidance applicationand displayed at the user device by the media guidance application. Inan example, an ebook reader may read a version of Beauty and the Beast.There are many different book versions and adaptations of Beauty and theBeast. There are also television series, movies, cartoons, animatedmovies, songs, music videos and other media that is inspired by theoriginal story. If a reader of Beauty in the Beast is interested infinding related content that is relevant to the book, the reader mayselect a portion of the text of the Beauty and the Beast ebook togenerate a search. Such search could also include criteria from theebook manifest file including the title of the book and a chapter of thebook. Simply searching for a keyword from the text could lead to anumber of random results. For example, in Beauty and the Beast, a simplesearch of a tagline “be our guest” may lead to results that match“guest”. Such results would be irrelevant to the reader. For a readerwho may be reading Beauty and the Beast and when seeing the phrase “beour guest”, may recall the song from the movie, and may wish to view amusic video or a movie clip including the song.

Adding the book title to the search will help contextualize the search.In addition, for media that is episodic, or which has multiple parts,using the chapter or location information can map out a point in theprogression of the story to find more relevant results. In someexamples, since the tagline “be our guest” is known in reviews andcommentary on Beauty and the Beast media, the media guidance applicationmay identify supplemental content for this tagline and store it in anebook database that can serve information to the ebook reader so thatuses of this tagline in the ebook can be displayed in a mannerindicating that there is supplemental content. When such text isselected, the selection may be received by the media guidanceapplication, which will then consult the ebook database, or the ebookmetadata file to identify and retrieve the related supplemental content.Additional criteria for the query may also be included in the search.For example, a third criterion may be identified in the manifest filefor the ebook that is related to the selected portion of the text,including a page number, a line number, a paragraph number, a scene, anelectronic bookmark, a movie, a movie version. Additional criteria andcombinations of criterion can also be used to shape a query forsupplemental content. For searches that are performed automatically bythe media guidance application, the manifest file criteria can be usedto focus a choice of a particular supplemental content item that is mostrelevant to the portion of the text in the ebook.

User preference information can also be used to shape a search andfilter results. For example, for a reader with a media guidance userprofile that includes parodies, cartoons and comedies, when such readerselects a portion of text from an ebook, the preference profile mayalter the results. For example, for a reader of Beauty and the Beast,when selecting the tagline “be our guest,” the reader may see a resultlisting that includes a Simpsons episode including a parody song by Mr.Burns “See My Vest”.

In some scenarios, supplemental content that is identified in the searchmay be shared with a second user device. For example, a reader may readan ebook on a tablet or portable device and may wish to view somerelated content to the book, such as a movie adaptation of the book. Thereader may seek to view that movie on a larger screen, such as atelevision, or may wish to share the movie with a second device, perhapsthe reader's own device, or a friend's or family member's device. Thesupplemental content that is displayed on the user's device may beconfigured to be displayed with a selectable button that allows the userto share the supplemental content with another device. When the buttonis selected by the user, the media guidance application will receive theselection and cause the supplemental content to be displayed on thesecond device. Before the supplemental content is displayed on thesecond device, the media guidance application may perform an optionaldetermination to ensure that the supplemental content item can bedisplayed on the second device. For example, the second device may havecertain media subscription limitations, age and content controls, orother restrictions for displaying the supplemental content. In thiscase, the user may be prompted to confirm accessibility or suitabilityof the supplemental content.

In some scenarios, an ebook may be displayed in a manner that makes itclear that there is related supplemental content. For example, asentence, or a phrase in an ebook may be a tagline in a movie adaptationof the book. For example, in Beauty and the Beast, a tagline “be ourguest” may be displayed in a different way in the ebook. In thisexample, the sentence with the tagline may be highlighted in a manner toshow that it has associated supplemental content. Each instance of thehighlighted phrase or term may be shown in different manners which mayindicate a type or source of supplemental content. For example,supplemental content that is a video clip may be shown with related textdisplayed in one way, and supplemental content that is a movie may bedepicted by have related text shown in another way. Other types parodyor social commentary content may be depicted in other ways. The tagline“be our guest” may be associated in a media database with a Beauty andthe Beast movie, a music video for the song “Be our Guest”, a cartoonshowing the song “Be our Guest”, an episode of one of the Beauty and theBeast television series related to the scene, or other relevant media.The tagline in the ebook may be associated with different items in themedia database depending on the location of the tagline in the ebooktext. For example, an earlier use of “be our guest” may be associatedwith one portion of a movie, or a video clip, while a later use of “beour guest” may be associated with a reprise video, or a televisionepisode, or a scene in the live action version of Beauty and the Beast,etc. Metadata for the ebook file may include references between theebook text and supplemental content, or the ebook text and an ebookdatabase source for finding supplemental content links. Such databasemay be updated by the media guidance application to provide the best andmost relevant supplemental content items.

The sentence may be visually highlighted using an overlay class for thesentence to show that there is related supplemental content. In anotherexample, a button or selectable indicator may be included in the ebookdisplay that may be selected to obtain supplemental content for theebook that is related to the portion of the ebook being displayed to thereader. As the reader progresses through the ebook, such supplementalcontent button may lead to different supplemental content itemsdepending on the page the reader is viewing or reading. For example, aportion of text early on in Beauty and the Beast may be relevant to anumber of adaptations of Beauty and the Beast—movie, television, liveaction, music videos, however, a later portion of the text may havedifferent associated media items because the movie or televisionepisodes may have omitted references to certain parts of a Beauty andthe Beast book. Details about the relationships between the progress inthe book may be found in a manifest file for the ebook, and used tocorrelate associated media items in remote media databases.

When the query is created to search for supplemental content, thecriterion obtained from the manifest file may be important in that itmay relate to progress in an ebook. This can be relevant for a book thatis part of a series of books and/or which may be adapted into multiplemovies, or episodes of a television series. Thus, when chapterinformation is obtained from the manifest file for the selected portionof the text, it may relate to the last page the user has viewed in theuser's progression through the book.

When supplemental content is displayed at the user device, the user maywish to easily return to the ebook. When the user selects the portion oftext to initiate a search for supplemental content, the media guidanceapplication may capture the location of the text portion in the ebookfile and create a bookmark to the page and store the bookmark inassociation with the user for the ebook file. The ebook bookmark may bestored in cache on the ebook reading device and/or in a database for theuser. Such database may include user reading history information andhave access to user profile information. To facilitate the user's returnto the ebook, the supplemental content may be displayed with aselectable option to return to the ebook. In particular, to the point inthe ebook where the user selected the text portion to find thesupplemental content. The ebook bookmark may be used to identify thislocation. Or, in some scenarios, the user may wish to return to the lastpoint in the book that the reader has read.

In another example, supplemental content may be found for an ebook usinga search query that is then filtered using information from the ebookfile, in particular, a manifest file for the ebook. In an embodiment, afirst user input selecting a portion of text in an ebook is received ata user device. The user may select the portion of the text using anysuitable technique, such as by touching the text portion on a touchscreen tablet, or my using a mouse, roller, keyboard or other inputdevice on a reading device. In some scenarios, the portion of the textthat is selected by the user may be identified using highlighting in theebook display using, for example, an EPUB overlay class for the portionof text. The selected portion of text may be parsed at the user deviceusing a media guidance application to determine a keyword in the textportion. The keyword or keywords may be determined using media guidanceapplication control circuitry in the user device and analyzing the termsin the selected text portion. For example, some short words, such astext particles may not be important words to include in a search, andterms that are included in metadata or the manifest file for the ebookmay be given a higher priority for use as a keyword. Instead, somenouns, verbs or other terms may be more suitable for a search.

A query may be generated at the user device using a media guidanceapplication to search for supplemental content based on the determinedkeyword. The keyword in the query may be transmitted using the mediaguidance application over a network to a remote database to search forsupplemental content. The remote database may be any media database andthe search may be performed concurrently at more than one media databaseto obtain search results. Search results matching the query may bereceived at the user device from the remote database.

The search results may be filtered by the media guidance application toimprove the quality of the results and also reduce the number of searchresults using information from the ebook file. The user device mayretrieve the manifest file for the ebook. The manifest file includesinformation about the ebook including, for example, the title andchapter for the portion of the text that was selected to generate thesearch query. The user device can automatically select those pieces ofinformation, i.e., the title and the chapter from the manifest file ascriterion for filtering the search results. The user device can filterthe search results based on these criteria. The filter can, for example,remove search results that are not related to the title and/or chapter,leaving search results that have some match or connection to the titleand/or chapter. After filtering the search results based on thecriteria, the media guidance application may generate a display ofsearch results that match the criteria. Additional types of criteria mayalso be obtained from the manifest file by the media guidanceapplication and which may also be used to filter search results. Some ofthose criteria may be a page number, a line number, a paragraph number,a scene, an electronic bookmark, or a movie version for the ebook.Automatically selecting the criterion using the manifest file may beperformed using the location of the selected text. In some scenarios,the criterion may be selected using information about the location ofthe reader. For example, a chapter criterion may be selected using apage based on the user's progress, such as a last accessed page by thereader.

In an example, a page or chapter in the manifest file may includepercentage information for the progression to completion for the ebook.The page or chapter in the manifest file may also be associated withmetadata including chapter summary information and keywords which may beused to augment a search for relevant supplemental content. Suchmetadata information in a chapter summary may also be used to compare tometadata for media items in a media database. For example, metadata foran episode of the television series Beauty and the Beast can includeclosed caption text which can be searched to find closed caption termsthat match the keywords or selected text portions. In another example,metadata for a movie can include taglines and keywords which can bematched to the search query terms.

In some scenarios, selection of a portion of the ebook text in thedisplay screen may be received by the media guidance application andsupplemental content will be generated for display automatically on theuser's device. In other scenarios, selection of a portion of the ebooktext may be received by the media guidance application, and searchresults for more than one related supplemental content items may bedisplayed for the user to select.

A user may select one of the search results in the display, and themedia guidance application will generate a display of supplement contentitem that corresponds to the selected search result. For example, a usermay select a movie or television episode from the list of search resultsand the media guidance application will generate a display of theselected media item by requesting the selected media item from a mediasource.

In some scenarios, the supplemental content may be displayed with anoption to share the content with a second user device. Such option maybe included in the display of the supplemental content and/or includedalong with the search results. Such option may also be provided when auser initiates a query or request for supplemental content. If a userselects the option for sharing the supplemental content with anotheruser device, the supplemental content may then be shared and displayedon the other user device by the media guidance application. Prior tosharing the supplemental content to another device, the media guidanceapplication may check that the supplemental content may be displayed onthe other device. For example, a second device may be a child's, or havesome content access restrictions. In such cases, the media guidanceapplication may ensure that the supplemental content is suitable andmeets the requirements or controls set for the second device. In anothersituation, there may be subscription requirements to access thesupplemental content. If the second device is determined to not haveaccess to certain media sources, the supplemental content, if subscriberrestricted, may not be shown on the second device. Alternatively, theuser may be shown an option to remediate the restrictions by, forexample, accessing the subscriber limited sources, waiving the accessrestrictions, etc.

In some examples, availability of supplemental content may be shown inthe ebook display. In such example, sentences in an ebook that relate tosupplemental content may be highlighted or shown in a visible manner.The highlight may be effected using an EPUB overlay class for thesentence serving as an indicator in the overlay class of thesupplemental content. In another example, ebook text may be shown with aselectable indicator within the ebook display which, when selected,causes supplemental content for the ebook to be displayed on the userdevice.

Supplemental content may be displayed on the reading device the user isusing to view the ebook. Since the reader may wish to easily return tothe ebook after viewing the supplemental content, the supplementalcontent display may include a selectable option to return to the ebooktext. In some scenarios, the selectable option will allow the reader toreturn to the selected portion of the text used to generate the searchquery. In other scenarios, the selectable option, when selected, willcause the reader to return to the last page the reader accessed in theebook.

In some scenarios, supplemental content may be searched and identifiedwhen a user accesses an ebook file. For example, the user may access theebook file by purchasing the ebook from an ebook store, borrowing itfrom a friend or library, or other source. The ebook file for the ebookmay be delivered to a suitable device for the user. A media guidanceapplication may run on the user device and have access to the ebookfile, as well as user preference information. In some examples, themedia guidance application may perform a search for supplemental contentfor the ebook when the file is delivered, accessed or otherwiseassociated with the user. For example, if a user is tagged in socialmedia for a book, such tagging may be detected by the media guidanceapplication and such ebook association may cause the media guidance toperform a search for supplemental content for the user. In anotherexample, the media guidance application may search for supplementalcontent for the user when the user places an ebook on hold in the user'slibrary account. In another example, the media guidance application mayperform a search for supplemental content for the ebook when the userpurchases the ebook or downloads it to a device, or other actionconnecting an ebook to a user, that is detectable by the media guidanceapplication.

When the media guidance application performs a supplemental contentsearch for an ebook, the media guidance application may form searchqueries for the supplemental content using keywords from the ebook file.For example, the media guidance application may use keywords from achapter summary or notes in the ebook file. In some examples, thekeywords may be obtained from metadata associated with the ebook in theebook file. In other examples, query terms can also include keywords orcriteria from a manifest file for the ebook. In some examples, keywordsmay be obtained from a third party book related database, such as adatabase of book reviews, book blogs, book seller information, or othersources. The media guidance application may search media sources forsupplemental content related to the ebook. Links to the supplementalcontent items identified in the search may be stored in association withrelevant portions of the book text in the ebook file, for example, inmetadata for the ebook. When the ebook is rendered for display in thedevice, the control circuitry for the ebook may retrieve metadatainformation for the ebook and display the ebook text in a manner thatmakes clear that portions of the ebook text have related supplementalcontent that can be accessed by the reader. For example, a text portionin the book may include a tag line that can be displayed in adistinctive manner so that the user can tell that there is associatedcontent. In a book Beauty and the Beast, for example, the tagline “beour guest” may be displayed in a distinctive format so that the user mayknow that it can be selected to obtain supplemental content, such as amusic video of a rendition of the song from the movie adaptation ofBeauty and the Beast.

Generally speaking, the media guidance application may update searchesfor supplemental content on a periodic basis so that the links shown inthe ebook text are timely and relevant. In some scenarios, the mediaguidance application will use user preference information to identifysuitable supplemental content for a user. Thus, an ebook file stored ona device that is accessed by more than one user, for example, a familytablet, may be displayed with different highlighted portions or links todifferent types of related supplemental content based on the userprofile of the reader and content access restrictions for the reader.

In some scenarios, searches for supplemental content may be performed bythe media guidance application for any ebook file, without having aparticular focus on a user to build a database connecting text in theebook file to supplemental content. Although it may be somewhat wastefulof processing and storage capacity to identify these supplementalcontent links for ebooks without limiting the focus to a particular bookor particular user, this information can be accessed by the mediaguidance application to provide supplemental content links to the userquickly. Such a database can be updated periodically with links to thesupplemental content. When a user accesses an ebook file, the mediaguidance application can use the database information for the ebook toadd links in the display of the ebook file. Ideally, in this scenario,the media guidance application would refine choices of the supplementalcontent links based on the reader's user profile in the links tosupplemental content shown in the reader's display of the ebook.

In some examples, the text of an ebook may be displayed with more thanone way for obtaining supplemental content. For example, the text of theebook may include a selectable option on a page that can lead tosupplemental content that is generally associated with the displayedpage. In the same display screen, the ebook text may have certain wordsor images in the text displayed in a distinctive manner that connoteshaving associated supplemental content. When such distinctive words orimages are selected, the media guidance application may retrievesupplemental content associated with the words or images. In the samedisplay screen, terms in the text may be selected by the reader and usedto form the basis of a query for supplemental content. Selection of thetext terms may cause the media guidance application to identify keywordsin the selected text, and also identify location and book titleinformation from a manifest file for the ebook, and form a search queryfor supplemental content. Searching for content in this manner can betime consuming for the reader, however, the reader may have a particularfocus in mind for a search related to the selected terms.

It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/oraspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described in thisdisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGS. 1-4 show illustrative examples of a display screen for an ebook inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative example of search results in a displayscreen in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows an illustrative example of a display of supplementalcontent in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 shows an illustrative example of a display screen for an ebookand a second device showing supplemental content in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an ebook data file in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 9-10 show other illustrative examples of display screens generatedby a media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 13-14 are flowcharts of illustrative processes for searching forsupplemental content for an ebook in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for generating a listof supplemental content for an ebook in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure; and

FIGS. 16-17 are flowcharts of illustrative processes for searching forsupplemental content for an ebook in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are described for searching for supplemental contentfor an electronic book or ebook. Reading books on electronic devices isnow commonplace. Ebook readers are now often indistinguishable fromelectronic tablets in their ability to run software applications andshowing different types of media. At one time, reading a book was simplythat. But now, given the media creep into electronic devices, readerscan easily look up terms in a dictionary by clicking on the terms in theebook text and find book reviews about the book. A reader may wish toenhance their reading experience by accessing related or supplementalcontent for the ebook. For example, a reader may wish to watch a movieadaptation of the ebook, view a clip of a movie adaptation, view a musicvideo for a song having a tagline that appears in an ebook. A reader mayalso wish to share the ebook experience by, for example, sharing themovie adaptation to a friend or family member's screen. In anotherexample, a reader may wish to hear a musical score for the movieadaptation to surround the reader with an audio experience for the book.

A conventional ebook display screen is shown in FIG. 1. As shown, ebookdevice 100 includes an ebook display for a picture book of Beauty andthe Beast that shows a title 110, author 120, page number 130 and text140 for the ebook. The arrangement in the screen is illustrative onlyand some of the elements shown may be omitted, so that only the text 140and title 110 are shown, or some combination of book elements. Inaddition, the book may include background images and pictures for thebook which can relate to the text 140.

Another ebook display screen 200 is shown in FIG. 2 for the same book asshown in FIG. 1. For example, title 210, author 220, and page 230information are shown in the ebook display 200. Text 240 for the ebookis shown with some additional enhancements. For example, a phrase “TheBeast” is shown in bold. A box 250 highlights a phrase—“be our guest” inthe text 240 that has been selected by a reader. There is also shown aselectable option 260 for related content. The phrase “The Beast” isshown in bold to signify its importance and also to depict a source ortype of associated related content that has been identified by the mediaguidance application. Highlighted phrases or terms in the ebook can bedepicted in a number of ways so that the user can see that differenttypes of media may be associated with the phrase. For example, differentcolors or text styles may be used to signify that there may be a relatedmovie, television show, video clip, news article, blog commentary,social network channels, user generated video commentary, etc. Thehighlighted phrases can be significant for different reasons. In someexamples, the highlighted phrase may indicate that it has some relatedcontent and that if the phrase is selected, some additional contentabout the phrase can be accessed. The words in the ebook file that areshown with a highlight can be selected for display in a suitable mannerby the media guidance application using information about the text fromthe ebook manifest file, and using metadata for the ebook. For example,a media guidance application may retrieve details about supplementalcontent for the ebook from a media database and identify terms tohighlight in the ebook by matching supplemental content items with ebooktext information from the manifest file for the ebook.

The supplemental content that is associated with the highlighted termsin the ebook text display can be any type of media content, such as amovie, an image or information about the character, definitions or notesabout the phrase, or other information. The highlighted phrase 250 canalso be indicative of significance of the phrase within the highlight.The highlight may be created, for example, using an overlay class for anEPUB file.

The highlighted phrase 250 may also be used to signify text that hasbeen highlighted by a reader to generate a query for supplementalcontent. The media guidance application may receive a user selection ofthe portion of the text 250 using a user input technique such as a touchscreen or keyboard. Selection of the portion 250 may be received by themedia guidance application and used to form the basis of a query tosearch for content related to the ebook, in particular the selectedportion of the ebook.

The selectable option 260 may be another way to access related contentfor the ebook. In response to receiving a user selection of option 260from certain pages may instruct the media guidance application to createa query for supplemental content that includes details about thelocation of the option 260 within the ebook display. For example, in abook that is adapted to a series of television episodes, a manifest filefor the ebook text may include a page number or chapter number which mayindicate the readers progress in the book which may be related on aparticular television episode in the series of television episodes. Aparticular episode may be identified as being relevant supplementalcontent in several ways. For example, metadata for episodes of a seriesmay be searched to find description information that matches thekeyword. In another example, closed caption data for an episode of aseries may be used to find an instance of use of the keyword. In anotherexample, a percentage of ebook text completed, which may be obtainedfrom a manifest file, may roughly correlate to a progression in a seriesof episodes. In yet another example, user generated commentaryassociated with a series of television episodes may be searched to findmatching terms to the keyword and chapter progression. Selecting option260 from one page of the book may lead to one of the episodes, whileselecting option 260 from another page of the book may lead to anotherof the episodes of the television series. In another example, selectingoption 260 may lead to a display of more than one supplemental contentitem. In some examples, the selectable option 260 may be linked toparticular supplemental content identified by the media guidanceapplication as being relevant to the ebook page being displayed to thereader. The supplemental content links may be stored by the mediaguidance application in the metadata for the ebook file or in a remoteebook database. Such links may be updated periodically by the mediaguidance application.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are also illustrative depictions of an ebook display. InFIG. 3, an ebook device 300 shows a display of the Beastly KendraChronicles, which is a story based on Beauty and the Beast, and thedisplay includes a book title 310, author 320, page number 330 and ebooktext 340. The same ebook text is shown in FIG. 4 with additionalfeatures for searching for supplemental content related to the ebooktext. As shown, in FIG. 4, the ebook display 400 includes title 410,author 420, page number 430, chapter 435, and ebook text 440. Ahighlighted portion 450 of the text 440 is shown for text in the ebookthat has been selected by a reader. Selection of the portion 450 may bereceived by media guidance application at the reader or electronicdevice and used to form the basis of a query to search for contentrelated to the ebook, in particular related to the selected portion ofthe ebook. Supplemental content related to the ebook may also beobtained by selecting an option 460 and by selecting certain text in theebook display shown in a distinctive manner, e.g., by selecting “TheBeast” which is highlighted to show that it has some related content.“The Beast” may be highlighted in a distinctive manner to indicate thatit has supplemental content from a certain source or of a particulartype, such as a movie or video clip, or a social network channel, oruser generated commentary, etc. Selecting option 460 from one page ofthe book, or a certain chapter of the book may lead to different relatedcontent depending on the location within the ebook that the option 460is selected. Information about progression through the text may bediscerned from the manifest file for the ebook file and used to findsuitable supplemental content.

The selected portion of the text 250 (FIG. 2) and 450 (FIG. 4) mayinclude one more terms from an ebook. The selected terms may be parsedby the media guidance application running on the ebook reader to findone or more keywords to use in a search query for supplemental content.For example, the selected portion “there was my beast face once again”from 450 FIG. 4 may yield keywords for “beast face”, which are nouns,while the particle “my” may be dropped from the search query because itis a particle of speech that may have too many matches in a search.Similarly, the terms “once” and “again” are adverbs and may also bedropped from a search query because they may not yield useful searchresults. Such a query may be performed by the media guidance applicationupon receipt of the selected terms from the user, or when the mediaguidance application parses the ebook text overall to identify linksbetween the ebook and supplemental content.

When a query for supplemental content is created using the mediaguidance application by, for example, receiving a selection of an optionfor related content using buttons 260 (FIG. 2) or 460 (FIG. 4), or byselection of portions of text 250 or 450 (FIGS. 2 and 4, respectively),or by selection of text portions designated as having related content, aremote database of media content may be searched for supplementalcontent, or predefined links to supplemental content. The remotedatabases may be ebook or media databases that are accessible from themedia guidance application via a home network (e.g. LAN) or theInternet. The searches may be performed by the media guidanceapplication in one or more media databases in order to obtain searchresults. The search query may be created using selected text as well asinformation about an ebook, in particular location within the ebook.

A manifest file for the ebook may be received by the media guidanceapplication running on the user device and which may include all of theebook text and additional metadata and arrangement information for theebook. One common file type is an EPUB file which sets the standards forthe file contents, and manifest file contents. Other types of ebook filetypes may have similar standards and requirements and could also be usedto perform the features and functionality described herein. Manifestfile information can be used to form the search query, in particular,location information for the selected text used to initiate a searchquery, can be used in the search query. For example, a chapter orlocation of the ebook page from which the text portion is located may beadded to the search query, or used to filter search results so that theresults are focused on a particular point in the progression of theebook story. In another example, a title of the ebook may be taken fromthe manifest title to add to the search query so that the search queryis focused in the context of the book. Other details about the ebookcould also be taken from the manifest file to add to a search query, orto be used to filter search results.

The search results for a search query may yield a single relatedsupplemental content item, which may then be automatically displayed bymedia guidance application on the user device. In some examples,multiple search results for a search query may be presented, forexample, as shown in FIG. 5 which depicts a user device 500 and fivesearch results 510, 520, 530, 540 and 550. The user device 500 may bethe same user device used previously for the ebook reader, e.g., 100,200, 300 or 400 (FIGS. 1-4). Alternatively, the search results may bepresented on another separate user device. The search results 510, 520,530 and 540, which are all related to Beauty and the Beast, aredifferent versions of movies that were created in different years. For asearch generated from 450 (FIG. 4), which is the Beastly KendraChronicles, search result 530 for the Beastly movie may be particularlyrelevant, or search result 520 for an episode of the television seriesBeauty and the Beast. A search generated from 250 (FIG. 2) from thepicture book Beauty and the Beast, may yield a search result 550 Beautyand the Beast, a 1984 cartoon production, or the more recent 2017 Disneyproduction in search result 510. Each of these search results may beselected and ranked in a list using version information and otherdetails from the manifest file for the ebook. Although the results inFIG. 5 are shown in chronological order, the results could be shown inaccordance with relevancy, user preferences, or other ordering.

Each of the ebooks shown in FIG. 2—a children's version of the bookBeauty and the Beast, and FIG. 4—a young adults book loosely based onBeauty and the Beast may have manifest file data and metadata thatreferences information about the book that may be relevant inassociating supplemental content. For example, the young adults book mayinclude an age group category indicating that it is not a child's book.Thus, a search for content originating from the Beastly KendraChronicles in FIG. 4 may not yield a matching result for a cartoonadaptation of Beauty and the Beast. Of course, if the media guidanceapplication determines that the reader's user profile has a history ofwatching cartoons, such cartoon adaptation may be included. A searchinitiated within the ebook text of the Beastly Kendra Chronicles couldalso include Beauty and the Beast related results because metadata forthe book would include that the book is a loose adaptation of the oldstory.

In another example, the child's book may also have an age group categoryindicating that it is a child's book. Thus, a search for supplementalcontent originating from the child's book version would not yield asearch result for the television series, Beauty and the Beast which hasa television rating of TV-14 and has a parent advisory for content,despite the child's book having the same title as the television series.In some scenarios, if a user profile for the reader of the child's bookincludes some adult material, then the television show episodes may beincluded in the results listing.

For searches from either of the text of FIG. 2 or FIG. 4, the searchresults and supplemental content may be provided with an option to viewon a parent or child device so that, for example, if a child is readingthe child's version of Beauty and the Beast, a parent may wish to watchan episode of the Beastly Kendra Chronicles that is related to theprogression in the book that they have just read with their child. Inthat scenario, the media guidance application will determine thelocation of the reader in the ebook text using the manifest file usingthe selected text in the ebook text, and search a data media databasefor supplemental content and narrow the focus of the results to episodesthat overlap in progression of the story. Finding the suitable episodesaccording to the timeline or progression of the story can be determinedusing percentages of the book completed, by using closed captionmetadata for an episode and matching it to keywords or surrounding textin the chapter or chapter summary in the ebook manifest file, using usergenerated commentary such as episode recaps and matching such commentarywith a chapter summary, or other technique.

Receipt of a user selection of the search results by the media guidanceapplication, for example, search result 510, will lead to thesupplemental content being delivered to the user device, e.g., as shownin FIG. 6. FIG. 6 shows a user device 600 showing Disney's Beauty andthe Beast 610 which may be obtained by selecting the respectivesupplemental content from the screen in FIG. 5. In some scenarios, thedisplay may include an option 620 to return to the ebook file. Selectionof option 620 will cause the media guidance application to return thereader's display to the ebook text. In some examples, selection of theoption 620 will cause the media guidance application to return thereader to a display of the selected portion of text that was used togenerate the query for the supplemental content. In another example,selection of option 620 will cause the media guidance application togenerate a display of the last page accessed by the reader. In general,when the reader returns to the ebook, visual cues within the ebook textfor supplemental content may be different so that the user knows thatthey have already selected or viewed such supplemental content. When thereader accesses supplemental content, the access may be recorded in auser history by the media guidance application, and the user history maybe used by the media guidance application to generate displays of linksto such content in a different manner.

If the option 620 is selected, turning to FIG. 7, the reader may returnto the text of the ebook in device 705 and continue reading the ebooktext 710. Since the reader has already viewed the supplemental content,the visual cues for associated supplemental content may be showndifferently—e.g., “The Beast” is shown in italics. The user may have theoption of sharing the supplemental content to a second device 715 toshow the supplemental content 720 on a second device.

An example of an ebook data file 800 is shown in FIG. 8. As shown, thereare a number of containers of details about the ebook that may beincluded in the data file. The manifest file may include arrangementinformation for the ebook file contents. In some examples, the manifestfile may be used to refer to ebook data overall in any container. Theebook data file 800 may include identifier information 810. Theidentifier information 810 may include an ISBN number for a book orother identifier. Metadata 820 for a book file 800 can include dataabout the book file data and can include any number or types of detailsabout the book file. Metadata 820 for the file can include reader notes,publisher notes, public comments, etc. The metadata 820 may also includeother details about the book 825, such as the title, book description,source of the book, relation of the book, e.g., to other books in aseries of books, or to movie adaptations, comic book adaptations, etc.The metadata 820 may also include book coverage information and rightsto the content. The media guidance application can update the metadata820 contents to include, for example, links to supplemental contentidentified for the ebook, and in particular, links to supplementalcontent identified for particular portions of the ebook. Such metadatamay be updated periodically by the media guidance application to includeupdated links and most relevant links based on a user profile, useraccess history, media subscriptions, etc. Manifest file data 830 caninclude details about the arrangement of the ebook file data and can beused to identify in the datafile 800 data that is relevant to a displayscreen of the ebook. Manifest file 830 includes details 835 about thechapters of the books, introductions, an afterword for the book andother content sections for the book. Spine 840 data may includeinformation about the book spine. Other details about the data file 800can also be stored in database 850. For example, user generated data maybe stored in a database 850 and made available to other readers of theebook. An example of user generated data can be highlighting andcommenting on text portions. In another example, a reader may identifysupplemental content that is related to a text portion and can highlightthe text portion in the book and link to the supplemental content andthe reader. This linking can be stored in the database 850.

Ebook interfaces on user devices may have similarities to interfaces forother types of media accessed on user devices. For example, a mediaguidance application may provide ways to search and deliver mediacontent in the same ways to provide supplemental content, such as amovie adaptation to a book.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, ebookreader, a tablet computer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television(PC/TV), a PC media server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, astationary telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobiletelephone, a portable video player, a portable music player, a portablegaming machine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment,computing equipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same.In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facingscreen and a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multipleangled screens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may havea front facing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these userequipment devices, users may be able to navigate among and locate thesame content available through a television. Consequently, mediaguidance may be available on these devices, as well. The guidanceprovided may be for content available only through a television, forcontent available only through one or more of other types of userequipment devices, or for content available both through a televisionand one or more of the other types of user equipment devices. The mediaguidance applications may be provided as on-line applications (i.e.,provided on a web-site), or as stand-alone applications or clients onuser equipment devices. Various devices and platforms that may implementmedia guidance applications are described in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 9-10 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 9-10 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 9-10 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 9 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 900arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 900 may include grid 902 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 904, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 906, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 902 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 908, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 910. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 910 may be provided inprogram information region 912. Region 912 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 902 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 914, recorded content listing 916, andInternet content listing 918. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 900 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings914, 916, and 918 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 902 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 902. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 920. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 920.)

Display 900 may also include video region 922, and options region 926.Video region 922 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 922 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 902. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 926 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 926 may be part of display 900 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 926 may concern features related to program listings in grid 902or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 12. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 10. Video mosaic display 1000 includes selectable options 1002 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 1000, television listings option 1004is selected, thus providing listings 1006, 1008, 1010, and 1012 asbroadcast program listings. In display 1000 the listings may providegraphical images including cover art, still images from the content,video clip previews, live video from the content, or other types ofcontent that indicate to a user the content being described by the mediaguidance data in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 1008 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 1014 and text portion 1016.Media portion 1014 and/or text portion 1016 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 1014 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 1000 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 1006is larger than listings 1008, 1010, and 1012), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 11 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 1100. More specific implementationsof user equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG.12. User equipment device 1100 may receive content and data viainput/output (hereinafter “I/O”) path 1102. I/O path 1102 may providecontent (e.g., broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internetcontent, content available over a local area network (LAN) or wide areanetwork (WAN), and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 1104,which includes processing circuitry 1106 and storage 1108. Controlcircuitry 1104 may be used to send and receive commands, requests, andother suitable data using I/O path 1102. I/O path 1102 may connectcontrol circuitry 1104 (and specifically processing circuitry 1106) toone or more communications paths (described below). I/O functions may beprovided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown asa single path in FIG. 11 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 1104 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 1106. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 1104 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 1108). Specifically, control circuitry 1104 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 1104 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 1104 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 1104 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 12). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 1108 thatis part of control circuitry 1104. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 1108 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 12, may be used to supplementstorage 1108 or instead of storage 1108.

Control circuitry 1104 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 1104 may also include scaler circuitry forupconverting and downconverting content into the preferred output formatof the user equipment 1100. Circuitry 1104 may also includedigital-to-analog converter circuitry and analog-to-digital convertercircuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuningand encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment device toreceive and to display, to play, or to record content. The tuning andencoding circuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. Thecircuitry described herein, including for example, the tuning, videogenerating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, andanalog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running onone or more general purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tunersmay be provided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch andrecord functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tunerrecording, etc.). If storage 1108 is provided as a separate device fromuser equipment 1100, the tuning and encoding circuitry (includingmultiple tuners) may be associated with storage 1108.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 1104 using user inputinterface 1110. User input interface 1110 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 1112 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 1100. For example, display 1112 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface1110 may be integrated with or combined with display 1112. Display 1112may be one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display(LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperaturepoly silicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display,active matrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display,cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diode display,electroluminescent display, plasma display panel, high-performanceaddressing display, thin-film transistor display, organic light-emittingdiode display, surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), lasertelevision, carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometricmodulator display, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visualimages. In some embodiments, display 1112 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 1112 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 1112.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry1104. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 1104.Speakers 1114 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 1100 or may be stand-alone units. The audio componentof videos and other content displayed on display 1112 may be playedthrough speakers 1114. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributedto a receiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio viaspeakers 1114.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 1100. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage1108), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 1104 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 1108 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 1104 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 1110. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 1110 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 1100 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 1100. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 1104 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 1104) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 1100. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 1100.Equipment device 1100 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 1110 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 1100 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 1110.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 1100 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 1104). In some embodiments, the guidanceapplication may be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF),received by control circuitry 1104 as part of a suitable feed, andinterpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry 1104. Forexample, the guidance application may be an EBIF application. In someembodiments, the guidance application may be defined by a series ofJAVA-based files that are received and run by a local virtual machine orother suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 1104. In some ofsuch embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 1100 of FIG. 11 can be implemented in system 1200of FIG. 12 as user television equipment 1202, user computer equipment1204, wireless user communications device 1206, or any other type ofuser equipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portablegaming machine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 11 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 1202, user computer equipment 1204, or awireless user communications device 1206. For example, user televisionequipment 1202 may, like some user computer equipment 1204, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 1204 may, like some television equipment 1202,include a tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 1204, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 1206.

In system 1200, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 12 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 1202, user computer equipment 1204, wireless usercommunications device 1206) may be referred to as a “second screendevice.” For example, a second screen device may supplement contentpresented on a first user equipment device. The content presented on thesecond screen device may be any suitable content that supplements thecontent presented on the first device. In some embodiments, the secondscreen device provides an interface for adjusting settings and displaypreferences of the first device. In some embodiments, the second screendevice is configured for interacting with other second screen devices orfor interacting with a social network. The second screen device can belocated in the same room as the first device, a different room from thefirst device but in the same house or building, or in a differentbuilding from the first device.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network1214. Namely, user television equipment 1202, user computer equipment1204, and wireless user communications device 1206 are coupled tocommunications network 1214 via communications paths 1208, 1210, and1212, respectively. Communications network 1214 may be one or morenetworks including the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice ordata network (e.g., a 4G or LTE network), cable network, public switchedtelephone network, or other types of communications network orcombinations of communications networks. Paths 1208, 1210, and 1212 mayseparately or together include one or more communications paths, suchas, a satellite path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path thatsupports Internet communications (e.g., IPTV), free-space connections(e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals), or any other suitablewired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths. Path1212 is drawn with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplaryembodiment shown in FIG. 12 it is a wireless path and paths 1208 and1210 are drawn as solid lines to indicate they are wired paths (althoughthese paths may be wireless paths, if desired). Communications with theuser equipment devices may be provided by one or more of thesecommunications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 12 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 1208, 1210, and 1212, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 1214.

System 1200 includes content source 1216 and media guidance data source1218 coupled to communications network 1214 via communication paths 1220and 1222, respectively. Paths 1220 and 1222 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 1208, 1210,and 1212. Communications with the content source 1216 and media guidancedata source 1218 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 12 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 1216 and media guidance data source 1218, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 12 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 1216 and media guidance data source 1218 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 1216 and 1218with user equipment devices 1202, 1204, and 1206 are shown as throughcommunications network 1214, in some embodiments, sources 1216 and 1218may communicate directly with user equipment devices 1202, 1204, and1206 via communication paths (not shown) such as those described abovein connection with paths 1208, 1210, and 1212.

Content source 1216 may include one or more types of contentdistribution equipment including a television distribution facility,cable system headend, satellite distribution facility, programmingsources (e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.),intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers,on-demand media servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademarkowned by the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademarkowned by the American Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademarkowned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Content source 1216 may be theoriginator of content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcastprovider, etc.) or may not be the originator of content (e.g., anon-demand content provider, an Internet provider of content of broadcastprograms for downloading, etc.). Content source 1216 may include cablesources, satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 1216 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 1218 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 1218may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 1218 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 1218 mayprovide user equipment devices 1202, 1204, and 1206 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 1108, andexecuted by control circuitry 1104 of a user equipment device 1100. Insome embodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 1104 of user equipment device1100 and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g.,media guidance data source 1218) running on control circuitry of theremote server. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server(such as media guidance data source 1218), the media guidanceapplication may instruct the control circuitry to generate the guidanceapplication displays and transmit the generated displays to the userequipment devices. The server application may instruct the controlcircuitry of the media guidance data source 1218 to transmit data forstorage on the user equipment. The client application may instructcontrol circuitry of the receiving user equipment to generate theguidance application displays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices1202, 1204, and 1206 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 1200 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 12.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 1214.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 1216 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 1202 and user computer equipment 1204may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 1206 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 1214. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 1216 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 1218. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 1202, user computer equipment 1204, andwireless user communications device 1206. For example, the other userequipment devices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or astreamed video. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operatein a peer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 1204 or wireless usercommunications device 1206 having content capture feature.Alternatively, the user can first transfer the content to a userequipment device, such as user computer equipment 1204. The userequipment device storing the content uploads the content to the cloudusing a data transmission service on communications network 1214. Insome embodiments, the user equipment device itself is a cloud resource,and other user equipment devices can access the content directly fromthe user equipment device on which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 11.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1300 forcreating a query to search for supplemental content for an ebook inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be notedthat process 1300 or any step thereof could be performed on, or providedby, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 11-12. For example, process 1300may be executed by control circuitry 1104 (FIG. 11) as instructed by amedia guidance application implemented on a user device (e.g., userequipment devices 1202, 1204, and/or 1206 (FIG. 12)) in order to searchfor supplemental content. In addition, one or more steps of process 1300may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment described herein.

Process 1300 depicts a process for creating a query for supplementalcontent for an ebook and then generating the supplemental content. Theprocess 1300 begins with control circuitry 1104 for a media guidanceapplication receiving a selection by a reader of an ebook of a portionof text in an ebook display on a user device that will be used to form asearch query for supplemental content related to the ebook, inparticular, the selected portion of the ebook. A reader may select aportion of text in an ebook display. The selection of the portion inputis received by control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance applicationat step 1302. An example of a selected portion of text may be, forexample, text 250 or 450 (FIGS. 2 & 4, respectively). In some scenarios,the user input of a selected portion may be automatically performed bythe media guidance application and obtained from an ebook metadata filefor a chapter summary, keyword information, or an ebook database of bookreviews, book descriptions, or other book data aggregator sources.

The user input may be received by control circuitry 1104 for the mediaguidance application and then analyzed or parsed to the determine akeyword at step 1304. The keyword or keywords parsed from the selectedtext may be obtained using linguistic analysis to identify terms in theselected text that may be nouns or that may have some significance asdetermined using metadata from the ebook file, e.g., 820 (FIG. 8). Amanifest file for the ebook (e.g., 830, FIG. 8) may be obtained by thecontrol circuitry 1104 to identify criteria about the ebook that may berelevant to create a search query. The manifest file may yieldinformation about the chapter from which the selected portion of thetext originated.

The chapter information may be retrieved at step 1306 by the controlcircuitry 1104 from the manifest file 830. In addition, titleinformation for the ebook may be retrieved from the manifest file 830 bycontrol circuitry 1104 for the media guidance application. The chapterand title information may be included in an index in the manifest file830 and the chapter may be discerned using chapter or book contenthierarchy information from the manifest file 830.

A search query may be generated based on the keyword, and criteria fromthe manifest file—the chapter and title—may be sent from the userdevice, e.g., 1206, by control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication to a remote database at step 1308 to search for supplementalcontent. The remote database may be a database of media content, and maybe one or more databases. The remote databases may be accessible via anetwork. Using the above examples, the remote media databases may besearched for matching content and the search may be refined usingprogression information for the story and matching it to metadata formedia assets. For example, when searching for “be our guest” 250 fromthe ebook shown in FIG. 2, a video clip of the song may be found as amatching supplemental content item. In addition, the movie Beauty andthe Beast may be identified and in particular, the portion of the moviein which the song appears may be identified using closed captioninformation for the movie to identify where the song appears. Thematching movie may be presented as supplemental content and be shownfrom the point where the song appears in the movie. Similarly, for a tagline that is delivered verbally or visually, the tagline could beidentified using closed caption data and presented to the user at thepoint in time that the tagline appears. In addition to searching closedcaption data, the media guidance application may also search usergenerated commentary about a media asset to further refine point in timedetails for showing related supplemental content.

The remote database will supply matching search results to the query tothe control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance application, and insome scenarios, a list of matching search results may be shown to theuser for selection. Such list would be generated by control circuitry1104 for the media guidance application for display on the user device.In other examples, one matching supplemental content item will beautomatically received by control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication at step 1310. The received supplemental content can begenerated into a display for the user at step 1312. The search resultsand the query may be refined according the steps shown in FIG. 15.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 13 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 13 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 11-12 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 13.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1400 forcreating a query to search for supplemental content for an ebook inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be notedthat process 1400 or any step thereof could be performed on, or providedby, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 11-12. For example, process 1400may be executed by control circuitry 1104 (FIG. 11) as instructed by amedia guidance application implemented on a user device (e.g., userequipment devices 1202, 1204, and/or 1206 (FIG. 12)) in order to searchfor supplemental content. In addition, one or more steps of process 1400may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment described herein.

Process 1400 depicts a process for creating a query for supplementalcontent for an ebook and then generating the supplemental content. Theprocess 1400 begins with control circuitry 1104 for a media guidanceapplication receiving a selection by a reader of an ebook of a portionof text in an ebook display on a user device that will be used to form asearch query for supplemental content related to the ebook, inparticular, the selected portion of the ebook. A reader may select aportion of text in an ebook display. The selection of the portion inputis received by control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance applicationat step 1402. An example of a selected portion of text may be, forexample, text 250 or 450 (FIGS. 2 & 4, respectively). In some scenarios,the selected portion received by the media guidance application may beautomatically received by the media guidance application using an ebookfile of ebook text and respective manifest file information, togetherwith information about the ebook text from metadata for the ebook thatincludes chapter summaries, taglines, keywords, or ebook commentary frombook reviews, book seller listings, book blogs, or other ebookinformation sources.

The user input may be received by control circuitry 1104 for the mediaguidance application and then analyzed or parsed to the determine akeyword at step 1404. The keyword or keywords parsed from the selectedtext may be obtained using linguistic analysis to identify terms in theselected text that may be nouns or that may have some significance asdetermined using metadata from the ebook file, e.g., 820 (FIG. 8). Amanifest file for the ebook (e.g., 830, FIG. 8) may be obtained by thecontrol circuitry 1104 to identify criteria about the ebook that may berelevant to create a search query. The manifest file may yieldinformation about the chapter from which the selected portion of thetext originated.

The manifest file may be retrieved at step 1406 by the control circuitry1104, e.g., the manifest file 830 to obtain chapter and titleinformation for the ebook. The chapter and title information may beincluded in an index in the manifest file 830 and the chapter may bediscerned by the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication using chapter or book content hierarchy information from themanifest file 830.

At step 1408, the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication will automatically select the retrieved title as a firstcriterion to include in the search query. At this step, the search querywill include the keyword from step 1404 and the selected criteria of thetitle. Thus, in the example from FIG. 2, “be our guest” as a selectedportion of text may yield a keyword of “guest” or a keyword phrase “beour guest” because “be our guest” is a tagline for Beauty and the Beastand which may be noted in metadata 820 for the ebook, and a search queryinitiated with “be our guest” would have added a criterion for the booktitle Beauty and the Beast. Adding this criterion would cause the searchto be focused within the context of the book. Similarly, using the bookexample from FIG. 4, the selected text portion “there was my beast faceagain” would cause a search for a keyword phrase of the nouns in theportion—“beast face”, and the title of the book—Beastly KendraChronicles as a criterion for the search.

At step 1410, the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication will automatically select the retrieved chapter from themanifest file to include in the search query as a second criterion. Inthe above examples, this would cause a locator (if a chapter is notavailable) to be associated with the Beauty and the Beast search fromFIG. 2, and for the Beastly Kendra Chronicles search from FIG. 4,chapter 3 (435) may be included in the search query as anothercriterion. Using the locator information can add additional context tothe search because the percentage progression of the location of theselected text can correlate approximately to certain items of media. Inaddition, chapter summary information for, for example, chapter 3 of theBeastly Kendra Chronicles can be parsed to find additional keywords thatmay be matched with media item description information or closed captionmetadata or other media item details.

At step 1412, the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication will generate a query for supplemental content related tothe ebook (using the determined keywords from step 1404, the firstcriterion—the chapter or location of the selected text—from step 1408,and the second criterion—the title of the ebook—from step 1410).

The generated search query may be sent from the user device, e.g., 1206,by control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance application to a remotedatabase at step 1414 to search for supplemental content. The remotedatabase may be a database of media content, and may be one or moredatabases. The remote databases may be accessible via a network. Usingthe above examples, the remote media databases may be searched formatching content and the search may be refined using progressioninformation for the story and matching it to metadata for media assets.For example, when searching for “be our guest” 250 from the ebook shownin FIG. 2, a video clip of the song may be found as a matchingsupplemental content item. In addition, the movie Beauty and the Beastmay be identified and in particular, the portion of the movie in whichthe song appears may be identified using closed caption information forthe movie to identify where the song appears. The matching movie may bepresented as supplemental content and be shown from the point where thesong appears in the movie. Similarly, for a tag line that is deliveredverbally or visually, the tagline could be identified using closedcaption data and presented to the user at the point in time that thetagline appears. In addition to searching closed caption data, the mediaguidance application may also search user generated commentary about amedia asset to further refine point in time details for showing relatedsupplemental content.

The remote database will supply matching search results to the query tothe control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance application, and insome scenarios, a list of matching search results may be shown to theuser for selection. Such list would be generated by control circuitry1104 for the media guidance application for display on the user device.In other examples, one matching supplemental content item will beautomatically received by control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication at step 1416. The received supplemental content can begenerated into a display for the user at step 1418. The search resultsand the query may be refined according the steps shown in FIG. 14.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 14 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 14 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 11-12 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 14.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1500 forsearching for supplemental content for an ebook in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1500 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 11-12. For example, process 1500 may be executedby control circuitry 1104 (FIG. 11) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipment devices1202, 1204, and/or 1206 (FIG. 12)) in order to search for supplementalcontent. In addition, one or more steps of process 1500 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment described herein.

Process 1500 may be followed to identify supplemental content related toan ebook. At step 1510, a query for supplemental content may be receivedby control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance application. The querymay be initiated by a reader of an ebook selecting a portion of a book,e.g., 250 and 450, by selecting an option for supplemental content(e.g., buttons 260 and 460) or by selecting a highlighted portion of anebook text that is indicated as having related content. In somescenarios, the selected portion received by the media guidanceapplication may be automatically received by the media guidanceapplication using an ebook file of ebook text and respective manifestfile information, together with information about the ebook text frommetadata for the ebook that includes chapter summaries, taglines,keywords, or ebook commentary from book reviews, book seller listings,book blogs, or other ebook information sources.

The user device control circuitry 1104 may analyze the ebook manifestfile at step 1520 to determine criterion to include in the search query.For example, a manifest file 830 may include details about the book,chapters, and pages and may include a timeline for a progression of astory which may influence search results. Chapter summary informationmay also be available in metadata 820 which may be used to refine thesearch query.

At step 1530, control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance applicationmay send a search query that is based on criterion from the manifestfile and text for the supplemental content query, to a remote mediadatabase to search for matching supplemental content.

Matching supplemental content may be identified at step 1540 from theremote database. The matching to the query may be performed usingmetadata from the remote database for a media asset to find, forexample, content that has suitable age ranges, genre types, descriptioninformation relevant to the query. In addition, user preferenceinformation may be used to enhance the search. The media guidanceapplication may then determine which of the matching supplementalcontent to present to the user.

At step 1550, the control circuitry 1104 may check a user preferenceprofile to determine whether there are any user preferences related tothe matching supplemental content media items. For example, a userpreference for ratings content may indicate a relative age of a user.Thus, for a search from the example in FIG. 4, from the Kendra BeastlyChronicles, a young adult book, search results may yield the televisionepisodes for the Beauty and the Beast series which has a televisionrating of TV-15 and had parent content advisories. In contrast, a searchfrom the example in FIG. 2, from the child's book Beauty and the Beast,search results may omit the television series because it is not suitablefor a child. In addition, for a user that has a preference for cartoons,search results may include a cartoon adaptation of the book. On theother hand, for a user that has a preference for musicals, the liveaction version of Beauty and the Beast may be included in the searchresults.

If there are items that match the user preference profile, at step 1560,the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance application maygenerate a list of matching supplemental content media items that arerelated to the user preferences. If there are no connections to the userpreference profile, however, the user device will continue with the samelist of matching supplemental content media items identified at step1540.

Both of the lists from steps 1560 and 1565 will be checked for usercontrols at step 1570. The user controls may be to determine whetherthere are any access restrictions for the media items that may interferewith displaying the media items or which may make sharing the mediaitems problematic. For example, a movie rating above PG-13, ortelevision rating of TV-15 and above, or a designation of Explicit maycause the media item to be presented in a list in a restricted ornoticeable manner. If, for example, a user wishes to restrict access tosuch types of content, but also has a user history of viewing suchcontent, then, a search for, for example, from the child's book Beautyand the Beast in FIG. 2 may yield search results for the televisionseries having the same title—Beauty and the Beast—but presented in amanner that makes it clear that it has a rating that exceeds the userpreferences.

If there are user controls for the media items, at step 1575, a list ofsearch results may be presented according to the user controls. If not,then the list of search results may be shown as from the prior steps1560 and 1565. In some scenarios, a single search result may beidentified as most relevant and the supplemental content item for thatsearch result may be displayed automatically by the media guidanceapplication on the reader's device or the second device.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 15 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 15 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 11-12 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 15.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1600 forfiltering a search for supplemental content for an ebook in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process1600 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any ofthe devices shown in FIGS. 11-12. For example, process 1600 may beexecuted by control circuitry 1104 (FIG. 11) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipmentdevices 1202, 1204, and/or 1206 (FIG. 12)) in order to search forsupplemental content. In addition, one or more steps of process 1600 maybe incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment described herein.

FIG. 16 depicts an illustrative process 1600 for filtering a searchquery for supplemental content to an ebook using details from an ebookmanifest file. At step 1610, a reader of an ebook may initiate a searchfor supplemental content by selecting a portion of text in an ebook, andthe selected portion of text is received by control circuitry 1104 forthe media guidance application. For example, a reader may select textfrom the ebook, or select a highlighted phrase in the ebook, e.g., 250or 450 (FIGS. 2 and 4, respectively). For example, control circuitry1104 may receive a user selection of text from the ebook. In somescenarios, the selected portion received by the media guidanceapplication may be automatically received by the media guidanceapplication using an ebook file of ebook text and respective manifestfile information, together with information about the ebook text frommetadata for the ebook that includes chapter summaries, taglines,keywords, or ebook commentary from book reviews, book seller listings,book blogs, or other ebook information sources.

At step 1615, the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication may parse the portion of selected text to determine akeyword in the portion of text. The keyword or keywords parsed from theselected text may be obtained using linguistic analysis to identifyterms in the selected text that may be nouns or that may have somesignificance as determined using metadata from the ebook file, e.g., 820(FIG. 8). The parsed keyword may be used as a basis for generating asearch query at step 1620 by the control circuitry 1104.

The control circuitry 1104 for the user device may transmit the searchquery at step 1625 to a remote database to search for supplementalcontent matching the search query.

The remote database or more than one media databases may be searched forsupplemental content matching the search query. Metadata for the mediaitems may also be analyzed to find suitable matching content.

A plurality of results from the search of the keyword may be received atstep 1630 by the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication from the remote database. Since there may be many searchresults, the results can be filtered to reduce the number of results orto improve the relevance of the results.

At step 1635, the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication may retrieve a manifest file for the ebook. The manifestfile includes data about the ebook, including a title of the ebook and achapter of the ebook from which the portion of text was selected. Themanifest file, e.g, 830 may be obtained from the ebook file 800 and mayinclude information relevant to the location of the portion of text usedto initiate the search query. The manifest file details for the keywordsource location can be helpful when identifying a clip of a movie thatrelates to a certain section of an ebook, or an episode in televisionseries adaptation of the ebook, etc. For example, a search from theBeastly Kendra Chronicles from FIG. 4 or a search from Beauty and theBeast from FIG. 2 may be filtered by a criterion from the respectivemanifest file.

The control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance application may thenuse the two criterions from the manifest file—the title and chapter—tofilter the search results at step 1640.

The filtered search results may be included in a final search resultlist that is generated for display at the user device at step 1645 bythe control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance application. The finalsearch result list may include search results matching the keyword andthat have been filtered by the criterion identified from the manifestfile 830 for the ebook. Thus, a plurality of search results for “be ourguest” from a search initiated, for example, from the ebook in FIG. 2,may be filtered to remove instances of the American Horror Story episodetitled “Be our Guest”, for example, and filtered to include only itemsthat are related to the book Beauty and the Beast.

At step 1650, the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication, for example, running on the ebook reader may receive asecond user input selecting one of the search results in the search listgenerated at step 1645.

In response to the second user input selection, the user device mayreceive at step 1655 a supplemental content item corresponding to theselected search result. The supplemental content item may be receivedfrom a media content database, e.g., 1216 or other media source. Themedia content database may be selected for receipt of the supplementalcontent based on access availability for user and the media guidanceapplication, quality or reliability of the data feed for the content, orbased on the type of device on which the supplemental content will bedelivered. For example, a television may benefit from a higherresolution source file for the supplemental content, while a portabledevice may benefit from a lighter or shorter version of the supplementalcontent. Network availability and capabilities may also influence thechoice of media sources.

The received supplemental content item may be viewed in a display atstep 1660. In some scenarios, the supplemental content display will begenerated on the user device on which the search query was initiated onat step 1610. In other scenarios, the supplemental content display willbe generated on a second user device.

In some scenarios where a media guidance application is performingsearches for supplemental content automatically using selected textportions from the ebook text, the search results for the supplementalcontent may be stored in association with the text portion, for example,in metadata for the ebook file, or in an ebook database for relatedcontent.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 16 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 16 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 11-12 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 16.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process 1700 forfiltering a search for supplemental content for an ebook in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process1700 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any ofthe devices shown in FIGS. 11-12. For example, process 1700 may beexecuted by control circuitry 1104 (FIG. 11) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipmentdevices 1202, 1204, and/or 1206 (FIG. 12)) in order to search forsupplemental content. In addition, one or more steps of process 1700 maybe incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment described herein.

FIG. 17 depicts an illustrative process 1700 for filtering a searchquery for supplemental content to an ebook using details from an ebookmanifest file. At step 1710, a reader of an ebook may initiate a searchfor supplemental content by selecting a portion of text in an ebook, andthe selected portion of text is received by control circuitry 1104 forthe media guidance application. For example, a reader may select textfrom the ebook, or select a highlighted phrase in the ebook, e.g., 250or 450 (FIGS. 2 and 4, respectively). For example, control circuitry1104 may receive a user selection of text from the ebook. In somescenarios, the selected portion received by the media guidanceapplication may be automatically received by the media guidanceapplication using an ebook file of ebook text and respective manifestfile information, together with information about the ebook text frommetadata for the ebook that includes chapter summaries, taglines,keywords, or ebook commentary from book reviews, book seller listings,book blogs, or other ebook information sources.

At step 1715, the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication may parse the portion of selected text to determine akeyword in the portion of text. The keyword or keywords parsed from theselected text may be obtained using linguistic analysis to identifyterms in the selected text that may be nouns or that may have somesignificance as determined using metadata from the ebook file, e.g., 820(FIG. 8). The parsed keyword may be used as a basis for generating asearch query at step 1720 by the control circuitry 1104.

The control circuitry 1104 for the user device may transmit the searchquery at step 1725 to a remote database to search for supplementalcontent matching the search query.

The remote database or more than one media databases may be searched forsupplemental content matching the search query. Metadata for the mediaitems may also be analyzed to find suitable matching content.

A plurality of results from the search of the keyword may be received atstep 1730 by the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication from the remote database. Since there may be many searchresults, the results can be filtered to reduce the number of results orto improve the relevance of the results.

At step 1735, the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication may retrieve a manifest file for the ebook. The manifestfile includes data about the ebook, including a title of the ebook and achapter of the ebook from which the portion of text was selected. Themanifest file, e.g, 830 may be obtained from the ebook file 800 and mayinclude information relevant to the location of the portion of text usedto initiate the search query. The manifest file details for the keywordsource location can be helpful when identifying a clip of a movie thatrelates to a certain section of an ebook, or an episode in televisionseries adaptation of the ebook, etc. For example, a search from theBeastly Kendra Chronicles from FIG. 4 or a search from Beauty and theBeast from FIG. 2 may be filtered by a criterion from the respectivemanifest file.

At step 1740, the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication may select a title from the manifest file as a firstcriterion. Thus for the search for “be our guest” 250 from FIG. 2, thesearch results may be filtered with a first criterion of thetitle—Beauty and the Beast. And for a search for “there was my beastface again” 450 from FIG. 4, the search results may be filtered with afirst criterion of the respective title—Beastly Kendra Chronicles.

At step 1745 the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication may select the chapter, based on the manifest file, as asecond criterion. The chapter or location information can be used tofind matching media that correlates to the progression in the story.

The control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance application may thenuse the two criterions to filter the search results at step 1750.

The filtered search results may be included in a final search resultlist that is generated for display at the user device at step 1755 bythe control circuitry 1104 for the media guidance application. The finalsearch result list may include search results matching the keyword andthat have been filtered by the criterion identified from the manifestfile 830 for the ebook at steps 1740 and 1745. Thus, a plurality ofsearch results for “be our guest” from a search initiated, for example,from the ebook in FIG. 2, may be filtered to remove instances of theAmerican Horror Story episode titled “Be our Guest”, for example, andfiltered to include only items that are related to the book Beauty andthe Beast.

At step 1760, the control circuitry 1104 for the media guidanceapplication, for example, running on the ebook reader may receive asecond user input selecting one of the search results in the search listgenerated at step 1755.

In response to the second user input selection, the user device mayreceive at step 1765 a supplemental content item corresponding to theselected search result. The supplemental content item may be receivedfrom a media content database, e.g., 1216 or other media source. Themedia content database may be selected for receipt of the supplementalcontent based on access availability for user and the media guidanceapplication, quality or reliability of the data feed for the content, orbased on the type of device on which the supplemental content will bedelivered. For example, a television may benefit from a higherresolution source file for the supplemental content, while a portabledevice may benefit from a lighter or shorter version of the supplementalcontent. Network availability and capabilities may also influence thechoice of media sources.

The received supplemental content item may be viewed in a display atstep 1770. In some scenarios, the supplemental content display will begenerated on the user device on which the search query was initiated onat step 1710. In other scenarios, the supplemental content display willbe generated on a second user device.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 17 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 17 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Any of these steps may also be skipped oromitted from the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that any ofthe devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 11-12 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 17.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. The examples described herein relating to ebooks may also beapplied in other media environments. One skilled in the art wouldappreciate that the steps of the processes discussed herein may beomitted, modified, combined, and/or rearranged, and any additional stepsmay be performed without departing from the scope of the invention. Moregenerally, the above disclosure is meant to be exemplary and notlimiting. Only the claims that follow are meant to set bounds as to whatthe present invention includes. Furthermore, it should be noted that thefeatures and limitations described in any one embodiment may be appliedto any other embodiment herein, and flowcharts or examples relating toone embodiment may be combined with any other embodiment in a suitablemanner, done in different orders, or done in parallel. In addition, thesystems and methods described herein may be performed in real time. Itshould also be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

1. (canceled)
 2. A method for providing supplemental content to accompany ebooks, comprising: receiving a user input selecting a portion of text in an ebook displayed on a user device; parsing, at the user device, the portion of text to determine a keyword in the portion of text; retrieving, at the user device, a manifest file for the ebook, wherein the manifest file indicates a title of the ebook and a chapter of the ebook from which the portion of text was selected; automatically selecting, at the user device, the title, based on the manifest file, as a first criterion; automatically selecting, at the user device, the chapter, based on the manifest file, as a second criterion; generating, at the user device, a query for supplemental content based on the keyword, the first criterion, and the second criterion; transmitting, from the user device, the query to a remote database, wherein the remote database is searched for a supplemental content item matching the keyword, the first criterion, and the second criterion; receiving, at the user device, the supplemental content item; and generating for display, at the user device, the supplemental content item.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising selecting a third criterion for the query, wherein the third criterion is based on at least one of: a page number of the portion of text as indicated by the manifest file; a line number of the portion of text as indicated by the manifest file; a paragraph number of the portion of text as indicated by the manifest file; a scene of the portion of text as indicated by the manifest file; and an electronic bookmark of the portion of text as indicated by the manifest file.
 4. The method of claim 2, further comprising: automatically selecting, at the user device a third criterion for the query, wherein the third criterion is based on a version of a movie associated with the ebook.
 5. The method of claim 2, further comprising identifying the portion of text by receiving a user input to highlight the portion of text by generating an EPUB overlay class for the portion of text.
 6. The method of claim 2, further comprising: providing a selectable option for sharing the supplemental content with a second user device; in response to receiving user input selecting the selectable option, generating for display on the second user device the supplemental content.
 7. The method of claim 2, further comprising: determining a sentence of the ebook that corresponds to the supplemental content; and applying a visual highlight to the sentence by generating an EPUB overlay class for the sentence and an indicator in the overlay class indicative of the supplemental content.
 8. The method of claim 2, wherein automatically selecting the chapter comprises determining a page number corresponding to a user's progress in the ebook based on a last displayed page of text of the ebook.
 9. The method of claim 2, further comprising generating, at the user device, a selectable indicator embedded in the ebook display on the same page as the portion of text, wherein the selectable indicator, when selected causes the supplemental content item to be displayed at the user device.
 10. The method of claim 2, further comprising generating for display, at the user device, the supplemental content item and a selectable option to return to the portion of the text.
 11. The method of claim 2, wherein generating for display, at the user device or the second user device, the supplemental content item further comprises determining whether the supplemental content item can be displayed based on a content control.
 12. A system for providing supplemental content to accompany ebooks, comprising: input/output (I/O) interface circuitry configured to receive a user input; and control circuitry configured to: receive a user input selecting a portion of text in an ebook displayed on a user device; parse, at the user device, the portion of text to determine a keyword in the portion of text; retrieve, at the user device, a manifest file for the ebook, wherein the manifest file indicates a title of the ebook and a chapter of the ebook from which the portion of text was selected; automatically select, at the user device, the title, based on the manifest file, as a first criterion; automatically select, at the user device, the chapter, based on the manifest file, as a second criterion; generate, at the user device, a query for supplemental content based on the keyword, the first criterion, and the second criterion; transmit, from the user device, the query to a remote database, wherein the remote database is searched for a supplemental content item matching the keyword, the first criterion, and the second criterion; receive, at the user device, the supplemental content item; and generate for display, at the user device, the supplemental content item.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to select a third criterion for the query, wherein the third criterion is based on at least one of: a page number of the portion of text as indicated by the manifest file; a line number of the portion of text as indicated by the manifest file; a paragraph number of the portion of text as indicated by the manifest file; a scene of the portion of text as indicated by the manifest file; and an electronic bookmark of the portion of text as indicated by the manifest file.
 14. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: automatically select, at the user device a third criterion for the query, wherein the third criterion is based on a version of a movie associated with the ebook.
 15. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to identify the portion of text by receiving a user input to highlight the portion of text by generating an EPUB overlay class for the portion of text.
 16. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: provide a selectable option for sharing the supplemental content with a second user device; in response to receiving user input selecting the selectable option, generate for display on the second user device the supplemental content.
 17. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: determine a sentence of the ebook that corresponds to the supplemental content; and apply a visual highlight to the sentence by generating an EPUB overlay class for the sentence and an indicator in the overlay class indicative of the supplemental content.
 18. The system of claim 12, wherein automatically selecting the chapter comprises determining a page number corresponding to a user's progress in the ebook based on a last displayed page of text of the ebook.
 19. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: generate, at the user device, a selectable indicator embedded in the ebook display on the same page as the portion of text, wherein the selectable indicator, when selected causes the supplemental content item to be displayed at the user device.
 20. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to generate for display, at the user device, the supplemental content item and a selectable option to return to the portion of the text.
 21. The system of claim 12, wherein generating for display, at the user device or the second user device, the supplemental content item further comprises determining whether the supplemental content item can be displayed based on a content control. 22-51. (canceled) 